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Unit Title: Poetry of Witness
Course and Grade Level(s): High School Creative Writing & Social Studies
Unit Title: Learning to See: Exploring Photography and Film for Cultural Nuance
Course and Grade Level(s): High School Social Studies
Unit Title: “Peace Maker,” the Game
Course and Grade Level(s): High School Social Studies
Unit Title: Understanding Media Bias: Comparative Media Project
Course and Grade Level(s): High School Social Studies
Unit Title: Exploring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
Course and Grade Level(s): High School Social Studies
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UNIT: Poetry of Witness
Year: 9th-12th Grade Creative Writing
Approximate Length: 1 Week
Jennifer D. Klein - St. Mary’s Academy, Englewood, Colorado
Visit the Poetry of Witness Virtual Classroom at Taking IT Global
The goal of this unit is to engage students of Creative Writing in poetry as a means of exploring Palestinian life. Students will watch various RJI films to give them a sense of daily life in Palestine, and will read a variety of Palestinian poetry, both by famous poets and young unknowns. Students will then write reactionary poems and their own poems of witness to their own generation.
RJI Resources: Falastine’s poetry and photographic portfolios by M. Faraj (An Najah University, Palestine); one short film on life in the West Bank (RJI)
Big Ideas: Poetry and photography as a means to bear witness, poetry and photography as the expression of personal experience, poetry as dialogue, literature’s capacity to simultaneously participate in and transcend politics.
Enduring Understandings:
- Real politics is about people and their actual individual lives, daily experiences, etc.
- Poetry and photography can serve as a way to bear witness to personal experiences
- Literature allows readers access to personal experiences in global regions of conflict which are typically difficult to discuss
- Photographyand film allow viewers access to personal experiences in regions of conflict via visual nuances
- Because literature transcends politics and shares personal experience, it can help readers develop an authentic, compassionate understanding of different global experiences, thus participating in the formation of cross-cultural global empathy
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Essential Questions:
- What are the nuances to life in Palestine expressed by Falastine’s poems and Faraj’s photographs?
- Can we enter someone else’s life authentically through literature and photography?
- How might the arts provide a means of communication between cultures? Does artistic expression allow the discussion of difficult regions and political climates better than other means of communication?
- How does cross-cultural artistic exchange change the way we think or feel about the world and other people’s experiences?
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Activities: Students will...
- View photographic portfolios of Mohammad Faraj
- View one short RJI film on life in the West Bank
- Read the poems of Falastine
- Choose one of Faraj’s photos and write a response poem
- Choose one of Falastine’s poems and write a response poem
- Write a poem which bears witness to an experience in your own life/world
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Skills: Students will gain competency in...
- Photographic analysis (visual literacy, including analysis of expression, gesture, background/setting, clothing and props)
- Poetic analysis (poetic literacy, including analysis of visual imagery, symbolism and metaphor, language choices, rythmic techniques and other poetic devices)
- Authentic cultural and political exploration via artistic work
- Poetry writing
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Authentic Assessment: Students will develop and demonstrate proficiency in...
- Verbal poetic analysis
- Verbal photographic analysis
- Writing poetry in response to Palestinian poetry and photography
- Writing poetry to bear witness to experiences of their own generation
Final Assessment: Students will produce a final “show” (either in published, online or gallery form) of student poems with the Palestinian pieces which inspired them - View examples of student responses |
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The Research Journalism Initiative
